True Crime writers seek out such tales every day, finding them in two sentence-long police blotter blurbs, law enforcement sources lamenting the one that got away, or victims looking for justice. They pile on hours of research and interviews, building a case while crafting a narrative. But unlike campfire tales, these monster stories cannot be embellished. The tale must be told straight. And as you will read in this collection, no amount of creativity can rival the treachery and depravity of the non-fiction world.

This year's tales include two internet identity hoaxes ending in mental torture or tragedy. One traces the final steps of a civil rights pioneer who vanished almost 70 years ago. Another outlines a daughter's slavish devotion to her criminal mother. A G-man turned criminal. A serial killer brought to justice. A crack-maker turned cake baker. A monster who gets his due.

These are the stories of the darker side of American life, told in Village Voice Media's newspapers across the country. — Compiled by VVM Staff

"Monster Next Door," by Malcom Gay, is the tale of Michael J. Devlin, who kidnapped two boys, one of whom lived with him for an extended period of time.

In "Broken Lives on Crystal Drive," Keegan Hamilton learns the tale of Lori Drew, a 47-year-old woman who used a fake MySpace profile to mentally torture her teenage neighbor, Megan Meier, who wound up committing suicide.